To think DD class should be allowed Christmas decs and music for the last week of term?

[EstherAlma]

DD is in year 4 at a CoE school and this term a girl joined who is a Jehovah's Witness.

The children usually have some decorations up in the classroom and as a treat they listen to Christmas songs whilst working the last week of term. This is happening in the other year 4 class and throughout the rest of the school - however DD's teacher has said because of the new girl's religion they can't do it this year.

DD said if anyone mentions Christmas to the girl she goes red and starts crying. She accidentally got taken to an assembly and was very upset. I'm not sure anyone has thought this through and I really feel sorry for the girl.

AIBU to think that this isn't fair on the other children in the class? I could understand if it was a secular school and also you can't walk into any shop in England right now without hearing a bit of jingle bells!!?

This is just lazy teaching and not thinking about inclusion and how to include her rather than excluding everyone.

Decorating the classroom as a winter, snow, alpine, frozen theme and reviewing music choices.

she probably feels more like an outsider cutting everything out and the cause of the problem rather than making new friends

Has the teacher actually said
'We cannot have Xmas decs becasue new girl does not celebrate Xmas?

Is it possible this is a post to stir up the usual 'ban happy holidays it's a Christian festival' crowd or...

As others have said is it incredibly likely that something bigger than this is going on for that child and the teacher doesn't want to rub the forced jolliness of the season in the face of a child who is struggling.

She could be neurodivergent and struggle with the change to normal routine.

She could be living with or close to a family member who is very ill/dying/recently passed.

She could have been moved into foster care necessitating a change to everything she has ever known and the teacher is trying not to remind her that, at the age of 8 or 9 she won't be spending the Christmas holiday with her own family, giving her one space where she can avoid all the emotions that will come with that.

You don't say the teacher has also banned talk of birthdays as well, which JW also traditionally do not celebrate. So I'm finding it hard to believe a child's religion is the sole reason for her alleged actions.

Frustratingly - religion isn’t a protected characteristic when you apply for schools so they may not have a choice . My little one is agnostic, I’m atheist - all our closest schools are CofE… I’ve put her down for the nearest secular school but we’re out of catchment so I’m just desperately crossing my fingers she gets in and losing far too much sleep over it.

But why should they?! JW is a doomsday cult.

My DS goes to an RC school as DH is RC (I am agnostic) and there are Muslim and Jewish students I am aware of but they still do Christmas and other Christian celebrations

I think it is more likely to be the distraction, and change of routine will dysregulate some of the characters in the class. I do not believe a teacher would say this to a class

We are also a faith school with JWs.

DD1 was Mary and a lad who is a Muslim was picked to be Joseph. They did ask his mum if it was a problem but she was pleased.

Get her noise cancelling headphones and let the other children enjoy the festivities

Unfortunately my daughter also had four years of not celebrating Christmas in their primary school class for the same reason, not even elf on the shelf and we're told the same reason by their teacher.

There may be something going on, but a whole class should not miss out on what normally happens for one child.

Sounds really strange. It's the norm for any primary school in the UK to celebrate Christmas surely regardless of faith. Let's face it, most people tucking into their turkey won't have stepped foot in a church all year 🤷‍♀️ it's very unfair to make the rest of the class miss out on what should be a fun part of the school year for them, their time at primary school is so fleeting.

JW does seem a miserable experience for children, they seem to miss out on so much. Sure they say they do other things to make up for it but a child really just wants to be able to join in with their friends, birthday parties etc. It's just all a bit too culty.

Why doesn’t the child just sit out while they do the play? That’s what happens at our school if children aren’t allowed in Christmas related things.

The JW in my son's class goes elsewhere whilst they are doing Xmas activities. Although I'm sure the teacher adapts lots to be 'winter' activities.

He play on iPad in another class during things like nativity rehearsals, and is taken out of school on the Xmas party day and the panto trip. Last year none of the class did birthdays but this year the teacher has a birthday wall and they do sing, but the JW child leaves the room. The Muslim and Sikh children join in with all of these things.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but we can't adapt everything and expect the whole class to miss out for the sake of one child's cult membership. Although I also understand it's not the child's fault.

They all survived with no ill effects. I think it's one of those things that feels big when your kids are small but really in the grand scheme of things it isn't a big deal. The kid didn't choose to be a JW or a 'doomsday cult' or whatever you want to call it. He didn't get to go home to Christmas or Halloween. The class still got to do fun things just not themed around holidays.

JWs are a cult.. I feel very sorry for this small child. .. she is unable to celebrate something that she sees other children excited about. The school needs to stand up to her parents.

Unbelievable.

This

So every class having a ND child, a child in foster care, a child lost a relative Christmas is cancelled?

Not a lot of Christmas around then.

The teacher shouldn't be saying this at all. If the school has made this decisthey need to take responsibility for this, not put it on a child who has no choice or voice in this.
It sounds like the school are still doing whole school Christmas activities, and I don't think that being a CofE school means that they should be playing Christmas music as a trwt - most Christmas songs aren't Christian, or do you mean hymns?

I will say this though - as a teacher I have seen many JW children really struggle with Christmas, it's very sad for them. They haven't chosen their religion and they are told it's sinful to participate in any Christmas celebrations. Even at secondary age, it is a very isolating religion for children. I've known JW children pretend to have received presents so they can join in with the usual chat after Christmas.

Elf on the Shelf isn't really an integral part of Christmas in schools! That's for home.

I don’t have any JW in my classs this year and we have very few Christmas decorations up. We have a nativity scene and some ornaments, there certainly won’t be any Christmas music playing whilst they ‘work’.
There are lots of reasons for this decision.
Christmas is all around the children, both in school and at home- plays, parties, Christdingle, Father Christmas arriving on a helicopter, Elves in school and I need my classroom to be a calm, tranquil environment for my own sanity and for the children’s and their behaviour.
Believe it or not the children still have work to do around all the celebrations. Could you work in a hyped up environment!

My daughter has gone to non-denominational schools all her life, with Muslims, Hindus, all sorts of Christians and Taoist kids. They would still put up deccies and have Christmas music. They would celebrate the other religious holidays too.

They shouldn't have had to get used to it. I'm sorry, but the minority cannot dictate what the majority do. If the parents don't like it then maybe they should home school their child. I'm not in the UK but there are plenty of JWs living in my town and I've never heard of this nonsense in schools.

I doubt my dd's class have music playing but they do the rest of the xmassy stuff. Her current class has no jw but there are quite a few in the school. They just put them in separate room when doing stuff like xmas concert practice, fair etc. There is Muslim boy in her class who joins in with it, even accepts cards. It does seem a bit odd that jw would send a child to c of e school, when they have such intolerant views of any other faith. If they don't like it, they could send child to a different school.